Human Postcards: Henare “This land belongs to our ancestors”
(Films For Action) Human Postcards: “This land belongs to our ancestors”
HUMAN POSTCARDS is an ongoing series of 60 second video portraits, capturing the inspirational and often powerful messages of every-day people from around the world.
This land belongs to our ancestors
Take 60 seconds to learn about one Māori tribe’s struggle to reclaim their ancestral land from the government.
In New Zealand, division of land between Māori and European settlers is a complicated issue.
Māori have strong spiritual bonds with the land, They regard land, soil and water as taonga (treasures) and see themselves as the guardians of this taonga, which provides a source of unity and identity for tangata whenua (local people).
When New Zealand was colonised by the British in 1840 many Māori lost their land to government acts established to purchase land cheaply from Māori to lease to wealthy emigrants, who would bring additional funds for investment.
This is a short snippet of one Māori tribe’s struggle to reclaim and restore their ancestral land which has been neglected by government.
About Human Postcards
Human Postcards is an ongoing series of 60 second video portraits, capturing the inspirational and often powerful messages of everyday people from around the world.
“Since starting in 2015, we have produced over 150 unique postcards in multiple countries. Each postcard is one minute long and focuses on a single idea or aspect of a person’s life.”
“The idea came in 2014 while we were working in London. Every day we walked along Oxford Circus and saw a man in a human billboard costume advertising a golf store. We wondered what he was thinking as he stood there being passed by thousands of people, and if we could capture his story in a format which all of these busy people could enjoy, to change their perception of him.”
“As we started to film, we realised that the project was growing to be more than something about unnoticed people, and that everyone has stories, lessons, and dreams to pass on.”
For more information on this project, please watch the TEDx Talk here.
or read this article: Everyone is a story
Sources: Films for action
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